Lightning Protection In South Florida

Sometimes being number one is not a particularly good thing. Summer is not only hurricane season, but here in Florida it is our peak lightning season as well. In the United States, Florida has damaging and deadly electric weather that is unmatched by any other state. Warm, sometimes even hot air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with cooler air from the west, creating deafening and dangerous thunderstorms. Spawned inside the colliding air currents, electrical charges build up and often shoot toward the Earth in the form of lightning.

Here in Florida we experience an impressive 25.3 strikes per square mile and 1.45 million lightning strikes each year, on average. The state is also the deadliest for lightning, amassing 62 deaths over the past 10 years. As the old saying goes, lightning never strikes the same place twice because no place is the same after lightning strikes it. Annually, more than one million trees in the United States are struck by lightning. The Southeast has the greatest frequency of lightning storms in the country with Florida being the leading state.

Lightning can kill trees as soon as they are struck or damage and weaken them so severely that they are then attacked and killed by boring insects or other secondary invaders. Sometimes lightning struck trees must be removed due to structural degradation caused by the heat and mechanical forces generated by the electrical charge. What many people don’t realize is that lightning poses a risk not only to trees, but also to adjacent structures. Damage to structures can happen when lightning strikes a tree and then side-flashes (“jumps”) to more conductive materials such as downspouts and other metal objects. Generally houses with trees within ten feet of the structure and taller than the roof are most at risk to damage from side-flashes.

Tall trees are obviously most at risk to suffer lightning strikes and certain species like our palms and pines are damaged more often than others. Trees in feature locations in the landscape, historic trees, and those trees closest to structures are also smart choices for lightning protection. You may protect your trees by having Zimmerman Tree Service   install lightning protection systems. The best lightning protection for your trees is having lightning rods installed in the trees that are most susceptible to lightning strikes. Not all your trees need lightning rods. Zimmerman Tree Service  will make a professional assessment of your trees, based on species, height, proximity to structures and other pertinent factors to help you determine in which trees to install lightning protection.

 

Zimmerman Tree Service provides plant care, lawn, insect control, pruning, stump grinding, exotic invasive removal, mangrove, lethal yellowing treatment, pine revitalization, coconut palm injections, blend fertilizers, disease, cabling, bracing, lightning protection and total plant health care in Palm Beach County, Boca Raton, West Palm, Wellington, Manalapan, Green Acres, Lake Worth, Delray Beach, Jupiter, Lantana, Boynton Beach Tree and the rest of Palm Beach County, as well as Broward and Martin Counties in South Florida. Call 561-968-1045